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;
COMMON-EOOM AT THE KHAN 25
gloom on either hand ; dozens of camp fires glow
around you ; the smell of wood smoke is in the air
and for sound is heard a level murmur of unseen
men and animals, broken now and then by the clink
of chain hobbles, or a jackal howling on the mountain,
or may be by a shot.
During the evening I looked into the commonroom
used by drivers, an apartment whose diverse
inmates are of unending interest in all khans. It
was a mass of swarthy figures dimly seen through
clouds of tobacco-smoke by the light of a single lamp.
Already some were lying down, pillowed on harness
as their most valued possession, and wrapped in hairy
black cloaks ; but many more were seated cross-legged
exchanging news. For in a land without a Press
these evening gathering-places of men who have come
long distances are the true homes of rumour which
passes for news. And such rumours they are too !
Not as news, indeed, but as lurid and picturesquely
embroidered stories reflecting conditions of life, and
the hopes and fears and hatreds of many races, the
amazing fantasies of such wayside common-rooms are
a delight. Old travellers say that with experience
it becomes possible to treat these fabulous tales of a
simple folk as ill-coded messages, and extract from
them some element of truth.